Discuss all things Ghostbusters here, unless they would be better suited in one of the few forums below.
User avatar
By RichardLess
#4948311
I’ve always loved that little moment in Ghostbusters 2 when the guys do the “two in the box, ready to go, we be fast and they be slow” line. I’ve always thought it was super cool. Kind of badass.

Does anyone know the genesis of it? Was it something that ever existed outside of the franchise? It seems almost random that the guys have this saying. Almost like they are recalling some slogan from a commercial.

Is the idea that they use to say this all the time as working Ghostbusters before getting shut down? Or do you think within the movies reality the guys are just randomly ad libbing this moment together?(not the actors but the characters. So Ray, Peter & Egon are just riffing in the court room, not Dan, Harold & Bill). I know that’s over analyzing a simple cool throw away gag but what else is this place for? Lol

What do you think about the line? Does it come off as an attempt at quote baiting like “oooh this will be a great T-Shirt line”? Or does it work for you the way it works for me? It’s kind of hard for me to be unbiased about it. As a kid I use to say this phrase ALL the time. It just sounded so awesome. If it was written I have a feeling it’s a Dan Aykroyd line. It just has that kind of sing song element. But that’s just a guess.
JWils23 liked this
#4948312
I always thought it was a nod to an Old Western they watched back in the day or something. Like "two in the box, ready to go" being two bandits in wooden coffins and the "we be fast, they be slow" describing the gun fight. I thought more so after someone who did SFX on the proton streams mentioned they were partly inspired by cowboy lassos (Cinefex #40).

But I agree, a favorite line of mine and thought it was badass.
JWils23 liked this
User avatar
By JWils23
#4948313
It’s so hard to say because these guys would just riff when they were together. At fan fest they showed what, 5 different takes of Venkman coming out of the ballroom and just saying different things each time, none of which were in the script. Annie Potts has said she had trouble figuring out when it was her line because the guys would go completely off script. But that aside, I agree that it’s always a line I’ve loved. That and “light is green, trap is clean”
#4948314
I've always mentally paired this 'rhyming line' with a line from another film that came out the same summer.

In Lethal Weapon 2, Mel Gibson tells Danny Glover, "We're back, we're bad, you're black, I'm mad."

Funnily enough, Dan Aykroyd had a brief cameo in Mel Gibson's video diary about the making of LW2, in a segment on how films with similar release dates will often try to sabotage one another.



Perhaps the little rhyming quatrains were attempts to appeal to the demographic of the times. One of the reviews of GB2 specifically noted how the soundtrack was more rap-oriented this time, compared to the first film.

Both of them also remind me a little of a scene in Beat Street (1984) when the young rapper's mother tells him, "Eat your eggs before I break your legs. Now you know where your gallant talent comes from."

All of them sort of have a vibe to me of 'Yeah, we know, it's not cool when the older generation does this. That's the irony.'

Alex
#4948319
Alex Newborn wrote: April 17th, 2021, 11:41 pm I've always mentally paired this 'rhyming line' with a line from another film that came out the same summer.

In Lethal Weapon 2, Mel Gibson tells Danny Glover, "We're back, we're bad, you're black, I'm mad."

Funnily enough, Dan Aykroyd had a brief cameo in Mel Gibson's video diary about the making of LW2, in a segment on how films with similar release dates will often try to sabotage one another.



Perhaps the little rhyming quatrains were attempts to appeal to the demographic of the times. One of the reviews of GB2 specifically noted how the soundtrack was more rap-oriented this time, compared to the first film.

Both of them also remind me a little of a scene in Beat Street (1984) when the young rapper's mother tells him, "Eat your eggs before I break your legs. Now you know where your gallant talent comes from."

All of them sort of have a vibe to me of 'Yeah, we know, it's not cool when the older generation does this. That's the irony.'

Alex
That video would’ve been sooo much better had Aykroyd just nonchalantly walked by in the background as Mel was going on about sabotage, dressed in full GB regalia.

As for the line being being used to appeal to a rap demographic...lol I don’t think so. Though I can just imagine someone dumb enough in Hollywood hearing “Two in the box! Ready to go! We be fast & they be slow” & thinking “when rap fans hear this line they’ll be lining up for tickets for miles! We’re going to make a fortune!”
#4949410
I always saw it as,
It's the first time we had ever seen 2 ghosts trapped at once in the same trap so maybe it was the first time it had happened for the characters, and its Ray's glee over finding out that can work they make a little riff out of it....
deadderek liked this
    Proton Props UK

    Considering David orders most of the parts he do[…]

    Hasbro Ghostbusters

    While you're 100% correct about the function[…]

    Uniform Tips

    It does rain frequently here in London, but not to[…]

    The yellow parts are raw 3D prints, unsanded and u[…]